Trail to ’23: Craft goes after Cameron, Quarles on Louisville and a big moment for bears

This is the fourth installment in an occasional Herald-Leader series, Trail to ‘23, to catch readers up on all the latest from this year’s crowded governor’s race. First and second editions can be found online. There are about two months left until the May 16 primary that will decide who among several GOP candidates will take on presumptive Democratic nominee Gov. Andy Beshear.

Fun fact: There’s more going on in the world of Kentucky politics right now than the shenanigans in the General Assembly.

With all the excitement and drama over medical marijuana, sports betting, gray machines, book-banning, drag performances and gender-affirming health care bans, one could be forgiven for forgetting that the race for Kentucky governor is still very much on.

Let’s catch up, shall we?

It’s happening — a Republican has finally gone negative in their primary campaign.

We’ve heard from several candidates on the campaign trail that they won’t attack their fellow Republicans.

Kelly Craft, it seems, has no such plan.

It started last Monday when an outside group backing Craft, the former U.S. ambassador to Canada and then the United Nations, entered the fray with an ad attacking Attorney General and GOP primary front-runner, Daniel Cameron... by likening him to a teddy bear.

Yes, really. A plushy, child’s toy.

But that wasn’t all.

The Craft campaign came out with its own ad Friday, also attacking Cameron for “doing nothing” to stop President Joe Biden from shutting down coal-fired power plants.

“I’m supporting Kelly Craft because she stands with Kentucky coal,” a woman in the ad says.

Omitted from the ad: the fact that Craft is married to Joe Craft, CEO of Alliance Resource Partners, one of the largest coal producers in the country. It’s a business that has made the Crafts very wealthy indeed.

In reacting to the first attack, Cameron responded with humor, changing his profile picture on Twitter to that of a teddy bear and said it was “flattering” to be attacked so far ahead of Election Day.

But in responding to the Craft ad, Cameron’s team didn’t hold back, noting the plant at the center of the ad is actually in West Virginia.

“Kelly is free to hop on her fancy private jet (paid for by coal mining profits) and run for Governor of Oklahoma or West Virginia if she wishes,” the campaign said. “But if you’re going to advocate for Kentucky you might want to, oh I don’t know, advocate for Kentucky jobs and Kentucky ratepayers over those in West Virginia.”

As of writing this, Cameron’s campaign store does not have any teddy bear merchandise, despite the fact that his son, Theodore, could be an excellent spokesbaby for such an item.

Never one to let the opportunity for a joke to pass him by, Auditor Mike Harmon said he could “‘bear’ly believe” that negative ads were airing so early in the race.

As not seen on TV

Harmon, yet another gubernatorial candidate, also released an ad last week, but given his fundraising numbers, you’re unlikely to see the ad anywhere but YouTube and social media.

In the minute-long video, Harmon points to the ongoing repairs to the Kentucky Capitol building, saying it wasn’t taken care of in a timely manner.

“I want to restore Kentucky to its greatness,” Harmon says. “I want to make sure this state can accomplish everything, everything. We have so much potential.”

Quarles: I have ‘bold ideas’ for Louisville

Commissioner of Agriculture Ryan Quarles — one of a dozen people hoping to win the GOP primary — released an “ambitious” plan last week explaining how he’d be a “strong advocate” for Louisville as governor.

It included many of the same facets Republicans love to attack about deep-blue Louisville: crime, schools and homelessness.

A few of Quarles’ ideas:

• Emphasizing “intergovernmental cooperation between the Governor’s office and Metro Council to deal with gangs and violent crime,” which he said Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear failed to do.

• On homelessness, Quarles noted some encampments are on state-owned land, and therefore the state must “pay attention to these locations and ensure they do not turn in to hubs for violence.”

• Investments in infrastructure could lead to “Louisville hosting even bigger events which could revitalize the vacancies downtown.”

KDP on GOP debate: A race to the right

The first Republican debate of the primary season came and went last week — you can find our coverage here and here — and arguably no one loved it more than Kentucky Democrats.

They called the first debate of “the chaotic and expensive GOP primary” a competition “to appeal to the furthest right-wing fringes” of the party, the Kentucky Democratic Party said.

“The clear winner of this debate was Andy Beshear,” KDP Chair Colmon Elridge said in a statement. “We heard a lot of noise and not a lot of substance, all meant to distract from the lack of plans to deliver real solutions for Kentuckians and their families.”

The KDP has also said Republicans are copying some of Beshear’s stances, whether that’s Cameron on teacher raises or Quarles on medical marijuana.